Seems like the big issue, like most mini-ITX cases, is lack of CPU heatsink clearance. I wonder if flipping the PSU from it's intended orientation (basically turning this into a DTX case) would be the best bet. That way you could use a blow-down style heatsink without a fan (relying on PSU fan). I'm thinking Scythe Shuriken. Probably have to swap the PSU fan too, while your at it, to keep things quiet. I guess the alternative is to go PicoPSU and then you've got plenty of room for heatsinks. But if you go that route, the size of the case is actually starting to look a bit wastefully large and full of holes . . .

While I'm a fan of tiny, cute cubes (and the usual paperback shape), this design is failtastic.

The only reason it's so huge is so that you can cram in a monstrously overpowered PSU. Replace it with a smaller formfactor design, or, better yet, a PicoPSU and you've got a case that's half or even one-third the size of this one.

Seriously. The thing's unjustifiably huge. It's bigger than the old G4 Cube, and it doesn't need to be. You may as well stuff your mini-ITX board into a microATX tower. As inefficient as that is, at least the excess space could be put to better use for more drives.

Look at all that wasted open space. And where you need space, there is none. Such as around your CPU and graphics card, since you're using hot high-end parts (given that you want to stuff an overpowered full-size PSU into the case in the first place).

Those airflow paths look suspiciously optimistic, as well as bad for noise and dust.

But since when did Lian-Li ever care about function and practicality over style and a sky-high price tag?

Pass.

Edit: If you're going to make a Mini-ITX case this big anyway, why not take the smarter approach and go for something more like the Windy MC3? That's a much better way to do the PSU and motherboard.

I must say that the huge fan there really took away from the simple elegance of the case, not very pretty at all.
Then again, I'm the sort of person that doesn't appreciate LED Fans and neon colors flying out of my case. I want them clean, simple and functional. I think minimalism is beautiful.

There are not many quality ITX cases out there.Besides this, I want a tower this time ... a Mini ITX tower.

See, the Mini ITX motherboard for example. That's what I always thought a computer should look like.If I had the choice, I wouldn't have bought Micro ATX.At the time people asked me for why I didn't get a "proper" motherboard.They really think small is shit and full ATX is the only way !How narrow mined is that ?

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Apart from that, why do you want such a monster fan in there? Unless you keep it running very slowly that must be insanely loud ...

Purely for design. Well, and a little airflow doesn't hurt either.So, you're right. For keeping the noise down it would have to have a low rpm. I guess it's a question of taste.

Nudz wrote:

... I'm the sort of person that doesn't appreciate LED Fans and neon colors flying out of my case. I want them clean, simple and functional. I think minimalism is beautiful.

I have to say, that's refreshing to hear.
From there you can see that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
People cannot argue about taste, but they sometimes try to.

With dimensions like this, it would have made far more sense IMO to put the the mini-ITX mobo on the bottom of the case, move the PSU to the top of the case and fit ODD and HDD bays where you could.

With the height of this case and some clever expansion bay spacing, this might leave some room for mid-sized CPU coolers. This would be a much better use of the size of this case.

My idea:

Put the mini-ITX mobo on the bottom of this case.

If you kept the sideways style PSU mount but put it in the top corner (over the expansion slot areas of the bottom-mounted mobo), vertically mount the ODD bay facing out the front of the case with a rack to vertically mount 1 HDD between the PSU and the ODD (in the area over the CPU area of the mobo), I think you would be able to fit all the essential components on the roof of the case (I did a quick sketch with measurements that suggests this would work).

This would give you ~120mm vertical space between the motherboard and all the components on the roof - enough to fit a Ninja Mini or a decent blow-down cooler, I think. Similarly, there would be about ~120mm vertical clearance over the expansion slots, with the ~200mm depth for a graphics card (although I don't think many high-end or even medium-end graphics cards are this small though) or other add-in cards.

There are not many quality ITX cases out there.Besides this, I want a tower this time ... a Mini ITX tower.

No problem, go for it if you like it. It's just too big for my taste, that's why I commented. No offense intended.

Cov wrote:

See, the Mini ITX motherboard for example.That's what I always thought a computer should look like.If I had the choice, I wouldn't have bought Micro ATX.At the time people asked me for why I didn't get a "proper" motherboard.They really think small is shit and full ATX is the only way !How narrow mined is that ?

More or less the same here. Have also preferred smaller systems to bigger ones (and love the Mac mini I currently use). Those people who think "small is shit" probably also assume a smaller system is going to induce a performance loss compared to their full-size rig (or whatever reason they have for their attitude) which isn't necessarily true anymore. Mini-ITX gaming rigs are possible.

Cov wrote:

Purely for design. Well, and a little airflow doesn't hurt either.So, you're right. For keeping the noise down it would have to have a low rpm. I guess it's a question of taste.

Exactly. I wasn't asking because of the design (it's personal taste as you say) but because of the noise.

Cov wrote:

I have to say, that's refreshing to hear.From there you can see that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.People cannot argue about taste, but they sometimes try to.

100% right again. Some people don't understand that and think their definition of taste and beauty is the only valid one and thus try to argue. Of course it's pointless but they fail to see it.

Likewise, when I was younger I was also about "bling-bling" cases with LED fans (and many of them), lights, glowing cables and all that stuff. My box was also very loud. Then it struck me and I thought how embarassing my box was. I threw all the bling out and stuck to minimalist cases - clean, simple, functional - ever since and try to make my systems as silent as possible.

In many ways, this could be considered a slightly perfect game for a "gaming" mini-itx system. Can put a decent graphics card with a AMD mini-itx or the Intel Mini-itx and there you go
I think the main reason they want this out is so people aren't spending high amounts on all these tiny items that are needed for some cases, which slowly brings up the price, even if it is an extra 50 dollars, to many that a lot.
I recently have decided I wanted to build a small gaming system and use that, and if you don't think enough hard drive space, get an extra RAID or something and there you go.

Yeah guys this case aint for me because of the type of PSU it supports but I know its gonna be a gift for some people out there. Choice is a great thing. I have recently started ti mod a shuttle case to stand on its front with all the ports at the top (I intend to hide the ports under a breathable shroud) and this case looks the same dimensions as my mod. The Silverstone Raven has ports at top but its kinda too radical looking.

With dimensions like this, it would have made far more sense IMO to put the the mini-ITX mobo on the bottom of the case, move the PSU to the top of the case and fit ODD and HDD bays where you could.

Never thought about that, but that's a pretty good idea.I have build this case in paper 1:1 (original scale).

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With the height of this case and some clever expansion bay spacing, this might leave some room for mid-sized CPU coolers. This would be a much better use of the size of this case.

If we kept the original measurements of that case, the gap between CPU and PSU would be bigger, leaving more space for a CPU cooler.

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My idea: Put the mini-ITX mobo on the bottom of this case. If you kept the sideways style PSU mount but put it in the top corner (over the expansion slot areas of the bottom-mounted mobo), vertically mount the ODD bay facing out the front of the case with a rack to vertically mount 1 HDD between the PSU and the ODD (in the area over the CPU area of the mobo), I think you would be able to fit all the essential components on the roof of the case (I did a quick sketch with measurements that suggests this would work).

I could also imagine to leave the ODD at where it is now (horizontal on top) and locate the PSU horizontal underneath.And the motherboard on the bottom would leave enough space for the HDD to be placed vertically, attached flat to the front panel.

Another thought would be to place the heaviest item (PSU) at the bottom and the motherboard horizontally above.That required a division frame within the case but would the cables coming from the PSU be long enough ?

Quote:

This would give you ~120mm vertical space between the motherboard and all the components on the roof - enough to fit a Ninja Mini or a decent blow-down cooler, I think. Similarly, there would be about ~120mm vertical clearance over the expansion slots, with the ~200mm depth for a graphics card (although I don't think many high-end or even medium-end graphics cards are this small though) or other add-in cards.

There are good low profile graphics card existing. We will have to source them separately.

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... maybe I should go into PC design.

Let's work this out and I will present our result to a Lian Li Production Manager whom I have contact with.
What do you think ?

Another thought would be to place the heaviest item (PSU) at the bottom and the motherboard horizontally above.That required a division frame within the case but would the cables coming from the PSU be long enough ?

...

Let's work this out and I will present our result to a Lian Li Production Manager whom I have contact with.What do you think ?

Love the idea of an internal divider for separate PSU area. Nice mock-ups in paper as well! I'll PM you some thoughts.

Huge is a terribly relative term here, don't you think? It's only around 4cm taller than the G4 Cube, 1cm deeper and the same width. Those aren't differences I'd fuss over As for it not needing to be so large, bear in mind that the G4 cube was a custom-designed computer with rather weak processing power (even for its time) and overheating problems, whereas the Lian-Li is designed to house a selection from any number of standardised components without such issues occuring.

nightmorph wrote:

Look at all that wasted open space. And where you need space, there is none. Such as around your CPU and graphics card, since you're using hot high-end parts (given that you want to stuff an overpowered full-size PSU into the case in the first place).

I agree that a full ATX PSU would be overkill for all but the most powerful components, and they just aren't going to fit in here - you could throw in a quad-core CPU, but no high powered graphics card will fit. However, if you use a PicoPSU, suddenly all that space above the CPU socket is free for a large cooler with a direct airflow path from the side vent of the case.

nightmorph wrote:

But since when did Lian-Li ever care about function and practicality over style and a sky-high price tag?

Normally I'd agree, but apparently this is going to be quite cheap (I heard ~$80), though admittedly it's obvious why - it's a pretty simple design in all regards.

I'm actually very interested in using this case for my next system build - 150W PicoPSU, Zotac 9300 motherboard, 45nm dual-core CPU, and a mid-range ATi graphics chip (4670, or 4750 if it's going to be called that / will fit). I'd be throwing a suspended 5400rpm 3.5" hard disk in the optical drive bay for mass storage, and an SSD as the system drive. It looks like you might just be able to cram a decent sized blow-down cooler in there (Scythe Andy Samurai perhaps) and a graphics card with a passive cooler that sits on the reverse side of the card. That would allow for a single, quiet fan on the CPU cooler to draw in air from the side vent and blow it across all the major heat-producing components. The only issue I can see thus far is making sure that the hot air then leaves the case in a timely fashion.

1. Why the hell is there still a 3.5 inch bay ?
2. Is the whole world painted black now ? What's wrong with silver ?
3. Why can't the I/O be hidden behind a lid ?
4. The fron looks like plastic, why no aluminium ?
5. No LED for HDD / SSD and power ?

By the way, using a full ATX PSU in this Mini iTX case is a joke.I'd rather get this PicoPSU 150-XT and have all space I need for a 3rd party cooler.

The owner said that he's gonna put back the aluminium lid for the DVD bay as he doesn't like to look at the plastic front.

I am that person. That was my case. I actually returned the case, because it was virtually impossible to fit a card in there even though there is a card slot and Lian - Li customer support basically told me I was an idiot and couldn't build a computer when I asked them for help with getting an i/o shield to fit (that is why there is no i/o shield in the picture).

The case I'd say was defective because tehre was probably some fitment issue so that if you put an I/o shield on it wouldnt actaully touch the motherboard and left a 4-5mm gap.

It was rather annoying . The full ATX power supply seemed to be a dumb idea too as it left cables everywhere . So yeah this case has some flaws, though it does look pretty nice, and the rubber grommeted Hard drive seemed nice.

I actually just ordered an in win bm643 to replace it... If you get the Q7 i'd recommend a pico PSU, and to make sure your board can actually fit correctly i/o shield wise . I am using a j&w minix 780g, and it wouldnt line up correctly with the rear i/o panel opening... even though that baord fits in every other case i've stick it in.

I currently have 2 PCs side-by-side, I wonder if a "big" itx case like that could be modded so that 2 boards could be mounted inside? If you used a fairly tall heat sink with the fins aligned front to back, coming within an inch of each other, then a front mounted fan blowing over both towards the rear vent might be all you need for cooling. The boards would be mounted on the sides of the case, facing each other.

There's a nice app called Synergy that I use, which allows you to share a keyboard and mouse between PCs using your network connection. You could run that and have a single K/M coming out of the box, and 2 monitors, 1 for each board. SSD for each machine's OS, and a single HDD and CD shared for storage perhpas if space is tight.

I'm not sure what benefit you'd get, other than putting all the space to use.

I too felt the power supply hole was too big. I took a scrap of aluminum and nibbled out an adapter plate that let me put a miniATX power supply in it, which seems to be much more to scale.

It looks ok, but this is the noisiest chassis ever. The aluminum is much thinner than I was expecting. There is far too much ventilation, so nothing to keep the noise in.

Next step is to line it with acoustic damping material, replace the PSU fan with a quiter one from silenx. Then maybe get a hard drive whose bearings are not close to failure. I'll also cover some of the perforations with the acoustic foam and see what I can get away with before heat becomes a problem.

IT also need front panel audio. As for a 3.5" bay - I miss it. I use them for flash card readers and front audio/usb/firewire units. Thinking about cutting a hole for one.

I might also take the fan off the stock Intel CPU cooler and stick some big 120mm slow speed fan in there to blow on the heatsink, since I have the space with the little PSU.

I wanted a project - and I got one. This case is nothing close to perfect out of the box. But, then again, I'm picky...

One more thing - why the heck do most cases put the front panel USB ports on the bottom instead of the top? Am I the only person in the world that has a messy desk. I have to shuffle things around to plug something in. If they were at the top, I could have an 8" pile of papers and such in front of this case....

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